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A6 U.S. NEWS
Thursday 10 OcTOber 2019
Under Trump, Louisiana is at epicenter of migrant detention

By NOMAAN MERCHANT ence in Louisiana as other
WINNFIELD, La. (AP) — states have told the agen-
Tucked away in the dense cy to stay out.
forest of rural Louisiana is a California and Illinois
barbed wire-ringed prison banned private immigra-
that has quickly become a tion jails altogether, and
major detention center for even in conservative Texas,
immigrants detained at the the Republican-led govern-
border. ment of Williamson County
The Winn Correctional Cen- voted to end ICE detention
ter is one of eight Louisiana at a 500-bed jail.
jails that have started hold- There's no such resistance
ing asylum seekers and oth- in Winn Parish or other rural
er migrants over the past Louisiana communities.
year, making Louisiana an Winnfield, the largest city
unlikely epicenter for im- in the parish and the birth-
migrant detention under place of legendary Louisi-
President Donald Trump. ana Gov. Huey Long, has
U.S. Immigration and Cus- a tiny downtown with as
toms Enforcement says it's many empty storefronts as
now detaining about 8,000 open shops. Timber trucks
migrants in Louisiana out of carrying chopped logs
51,000 nationally. from the surrounding for-
These new facilities, a mix of ests roll down the highway.
old state prisons and local Sheriff Cranford Jordan
jails, are a drive of several said that aside from lum-
hours from New Orleans ber, the area's two biggest
and other major cities, far job engines are the schools
from where most immigrant and the prison.
rights' groups and immi- But Louisiana's criminal jus-
gration lawyers are based. tice reforms could have
Migrants complain of mis- eventually led to the prison
treatment and prolonged Detainees sit and wait for their turn at the medical clinic at the Winn Correctional Center in Win- closing, Jordan said.
detention. nfield, La., Thursday, Sept. 26, 2019. Nearly 1,500 migrants are detained at Winn. "It would be devastating,"
"I knew they would detain Associated Press he said. "You'd see peo-
us, but I never thought it ple moving, bankruptcy. It
would be for this long," said said it identifies "contracts Winn has a dining hall, out- administration, which sepa- would be like an automo-
Howard Antonio Benavides that can be modified to door soccer fields, a gym- rated thousands of families bile plant closing."
Jr., an 18-year-old from accommodate increased nasium, and a 200-person as part of a "zero-tolerance" LaSalle Corrections, which
Venezuela who has been agency needs." chapel built by former in- policy at the U.S.-Mexico was already running the
at Winn for three months. ___ mates. border. prison, agreed to a five-
The surge has been wel- ICE and the private prison Most of the detainees ap- The 51,000 immigrants that year contract to hold ICE
comed by rural communi- company operating the peared to be Spanish ICE is detaining across the detainees in May. It also
ties that have long relied facility, LaSalle Corrections, speakers. Others spoke Hin- country is just below an made a $2,000 contribution
on jails for jobs, and by the allowed The Associated di and wore orange cover- agency record set ear- to the sheriff's campaign in
private prison company Press to visit Winn for three ings wrapped around their lier this year and is several March.
that gets paid by the fed- hours in September and heads. thousand more than au- A privately held company
eral government to detain take photos and video un- Detainees are required to thorized by Congress. The based in Ruston, Louisi-
the immigrants. der the condition that mi- walk from site to site with number of migrants has re- ana, LaSalle operates six
The shift has occurred grants' faces not be shown. their hands clasped behind mained above 50,000 even of the eight converted jails
against the backdrop of The tour was tightly con- their backs, as if they are as border crossings have opened since last year.
a criminal justice overhaul trolled. The AP was not al- handcuffed. Most employ- fallen in recent months and LaSalle's facilities are
in Louisiana that has re- lowed to speak to any ees don't speak Spanish or the Trump administration spread out across Louisi-
duced the prison popula- detained migrants besides Hindi and communicate has been aggressive about ana, connected by rural
tion, causing an economic Benavides, who agreed with migrants using hand returning border crossers to roads winding through for-
threat for small towns with to an interview through his signals or a few words of Mexico and denying asy- ests and farmland. To ad-
detention facilities. lawyer. As a large group English that one person lum claims. vocates like Homero López,
ICE has stepped into that of migrants held in one tier can translate to others. Advocates blame the gov- executive director of the
void. At Winn, which start- started shouting "come Authorities at Winn said ernment for detaining legit- New Orleans-based Immi-
ed detaining migrants in here," in Spanish, jail of- immigrants are better be- imate asylum seekers and gration Services and Legal
May, employee salaries ficials prevented observ- haved and easier to over- say the jails in Louisiana Advocacy, the isolation is
have risen from $10 an hour ers from approaching the see than inmates at a regu- epitomize the problem. a serious problem for immi-
to $18.50. Local officials immigrants and directed lar prison. A federal judge recently grants.
have signed a new five- them outside. The men "There's been very little ruled that ICE was unlaw- "Just the fact that you're de-
year contract that guaran- continued to shout from trouble," said Keith Deville, fully refusing to release asy- taining people in such rural,
tees millions in payments to the windows. the facility's warden. "When lum seekers in Louisiana, isolated places makes it
the local government and Nearly 1,500 migrants are you have convicted felons, and lawyers say very few not only difficult for the per-
the state. detained at Winn, where they act a lot different." people are released from son themselves to fight their
ICE refused several re- they sleep on twin beds ___ Winn or other facilities in case, but it even makes it
quests to comment on why in long, narrow units with Immigration detention has the state. nearly impossible for them
it focused on Louisiana. In barred gates. Formerly a become increasingly con- ___ to get attorneys to repre-
a statement, the agency medium-security prison, troversial during the Trump ICE has expanded its pres- sent them," López said.q